Illustrated Genji: the NDL copy with a 1650 postface

A Heian tale in an Edo book

Murasaki Shikibu’s early-eleventh-century tale follows Hikaru Genji and later generations across the conventional fifty-four chapters. The 1650 postface belongs to a much later stage of compilation and illustrated printing, rather than the tale’s composition.

Author, compiler and copy

The catalogue names Murasaki as author and Shunshō as compiler of the illustrated edition. It records sixty-one volumes, approximately 27 cm high, with three volumes of Genji meyasu and single volumes of genealogy, Yamaji no tsuyu and cited poems. These identify a particular compiled set.

Pictures and text within one volume

Frame 10 of digitized volume [9] shows a black-and-white scene with figures and carriages on the right, alongside vertical text and small writing on the left. Red and black annotations preserve traces of reading. The photographed shelfmark matches 857-120.

Why the attendants are fighting between the carriages

This Book 9 illustration depicts the carriage dispute in Aoi. In the tale, Aoi’s party arrives late to watch the purification procession before the festival. Attendants clear space among the crowded viewing carriages and meet resistance from Lady Rokujō’s party. Young attendants on both sides have been drinking, and their elders cannot stop the fight. Rokujō’s carriage is pushed behind the others; its shaft supports are broken.

Locate the carriages at the sides, then the pushing and pulling figures between them. The composition makes the struggle for space visible. It centres on the attendants’ conflict; the noblewomen ride inside the carriages, and no visible man should simply be identified as Genji.

Additional aids to reading

Genji meyasu provides an overview based on older commentaries and word explanations arranged in iroha syllabic order. Genealogy and cited-poem material help readers consult relationships and poetic sources. The catalogue identifies volume 55, Kumogakure, as a later manuscript addition. The sixty-one surviving volumes include supplementary material; they are not sixty-one narrative chapters.

Use the genealogy to identify a relationship

The genealogy in the same set gives a practical route from a title to a family relationship. Beside Suzaku-in, the entry reads 母 弘徽殿太后—mother: the Kōkiden Empress Dowager. A reader encountering those titles can check that they refer to son and mother, rather than unrelated figures. Entries also connect people with chapters. The meyasu supports word lookup, the genealogy identifies relationships, and the cited-poem material helps trace poetry used in the tale: the supplements address different reading problems.

A postface date does not identify every printing

NDL connects this copy without a publication colophon with early-edition features: Shunshō’s 1650 postface after Yume no ukihashi and chapter and folio information at the fold. The 1654 Yao Kanbei printing also retains that postface. Dating a copy requires more than its postface year.

Large, horizontal and small formats

The University of Tokyo comparison distinguishes large, horizontal and small formats, with a horizontal edition issued in 1660. Their pictures can be compared across versions. Its 1654 large-format comparison copy is not the same object as the earlier NDL set without a publication colophon discussed here.

The same carriage dispute in a horizontal format

Compare the carriage dispute in this NDL large-format copy with the same scene in the horizontal edition of 1660. The tall picture stacks the crowd between the carriages; the horizontal version spreads the figures across the page and brings more of the right-hand wheel into view. Carriages and fighting attendants still identify the episode, while their arrangement adapts to the wider field. This comparison shows a change in layout, alongside the dating problem: an identical postface year does not make every copy the same printing.

Counting pictures across spreads

The comparison records 226 illustrations, twelve extending across a spread. Counting each half of those spreads separately gives 238 half-folio images. The totals use different units and should not be confused with the numbers of book volumes or narrative chapters.

The images’ later circulation

Tokyo’s account traces the pictures into later illustrated editions, the modern Yūhōdō Bunko and prewar school readers. Digital comparison now places copies beside one another, revealing changes in composition and printing across the images’ long circulation.